Ashwinikumar Kulkarni

Master of Science
Molecular and Cell Biology

Graduation Date: May 2011

UT Southwestern Medical Center,
Fall 2010 - Spring 2011

“I got a chance to apply the theoretic knowledge I gained to actual research experimentation.”

For Ashwinikumar Kulkarni, an internship was a chance to get real-life experience in a lab setting while finishing up his Master's degree and preparing to pursue his doctorate degree. His experience in the lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center has given him the opportunity to put his theories into practice.

“Most of my studies till now involved a major share of theoretic knowledge about the processes happening within the cell and I never actually got a chance to handle the experimentation and know the process in more details.” Much of his work involves using computers to analyze data, and he also gets to assist with other parts of the experiments.

“I learned a few things related to my major such as actual experimentation of microarray and ChIP-seq and further downstream processing of the data. But, I also got an opportunity to learn many new things like corporate environment, corporate culture, and values of the organization.” The exposure to a fully-functioning lab environment has allowed Ashwinikumar to hone his skills in networking, working as a team, discussing his work, and communicating with upper level members of the organization. He even got to meet a few highly regarded UT Southwestern scientists whose work he admires!

This ideal opportunity came toward the end of the registration period, but Ashwinikumar could not let it slip from his hands. “I still remember the day I got the offer letter which was the last day to register for the internship and I appreciate Career Center's help to make things happen in a real smooth way.” Ashwinikumar has a natural proficiency in working with computers, and wants to combine this skill with his knowledge in biology to make an impact in the field of medicine. He expects this internship experience to provide him a solid background and an edge as he continues on to doctoral studies.